Cheers, 2024. We’ve got to say, you’ve been great. In a single, standout year at Codelocks we’ve celebrated landmark anniversaries, launched new products, promoted talented people and expanded our global horizons. It’s been really exciting.
As we pour a glass of sherry, put out cookies for Santa, pop a carrot on the barbie for Rudolf, and break out the Lebkuchen (covering all international bases here) we thought we’d take a moment to reflect on a momentous year.
Give ‘Ps’ a chance
Forget partridges and pear trees, 2024 for Codelocks was all about the Ps. Proud Moments, People, Promotions, Policies and Product Portfolios.
Proud Moments
Codelocks NetCode® Technology celebrated its 10th birthday. NetCode® has been giving the right access to the right people at the right time for ten years now. It hardly seems possible.
Time has flown since NetCode® burst onto the access control scene in 2014. Remember then? It was the year of the ice-bucket challenge, Germany won the FIFA world cup in Brazil, and Codelocks opened our first offices Down Under to serve the Asia Pacific market.
Now, ten years on, under the leadership of APAC GM, Mark Samuelson, our Australian arm has grown into a multi-million AUS dollar business serving over 1,500 clients across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Many Happy Returns, you beaut!
People and Promotions
Codelocks is all about people – we live by our family values. We often talk about our family culture, which was literally the case when we were first established over thirty years ago. We value all our employees as family members.
In 2024, we looked at where we wanted to be in the second quarter of the century and made sure to put the right people in place to take us there. This saw a new company structure come into effect in August.
Dominic Ryan took over as Chairman of the Board. Colin Campbell stepped into a new role as Chief Executive Officer. Joanne Milne-Rowe was appointed UK Managing Director and Ros Bayliss joined the board as our new Global Marketing Director.
In other people news, we celebrated the appointment of our sales manager, Michelle Saunders as the new Vice Chair of the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers (GAI) for the UK’s North Central Community Hub. Michelle was the driving force behind our On The Road Locks with Codelocks’ training initiative that has trained hundreds of UK distributors, locksmiths and installers over the past year.
Politics and Policy
Codelocks doesn’t operate in isolation. Our products and services are critical for safety as well as access control, especially when it comes to fire safety and regulations. With that top of mind, in February we hosted the then local Member of the UK Parliament (MP) Laura Farris to discuss the implications of proposed changes to fire door testing requirements for UK businesses. Our MD, now CEO, Colin Campbell expressed concern about the impact of the proposed move away from testing to the British Standard BS47622 in favour of testing solely to the European Standard EN1634-1.
While we are on the subject of policy and compliance, in Europe, Codelocks secured CE Marking for our mortice locks and tubular latches. This firmly establishes our extensive range of access control solutions and fire door assemblies with CE-certified locks and latches.
Meanwhile, in the US, Codelocks celebrated its fire rated locks CL610, CL615, CL5210, CL5510 and CL5550 during Fire Prevention Week. The certification ensures that these locks can be used on any fire-rated opening without negatively affecting the opening’s fire certification and safety.
Powerful Product Portfolio
Finally, it wouldn’t be a Codelocks roundup without a plethora of product announcements. 2024 saw the introductions of new products, product variations and products tailored for the various markets we operate in around the world.
For the US market, we introduced public functionality to the KL10 KitLock. The mechanical lock gives multiple users keyless access to shared storage at public facilities like gyms, sports centers, spas, retail stores, offices and shared workspaces.
We added Codelocks NetCodeÒ Technology to our best-selling CL5000 offering time-sensitive functionality. This enables customers to grant temporary access codes to remote locations with a robust lock that is ideal for heavy-duty, high traffic areas.
We extended our range to include gate and fence solutions with our new XtraD Heavy Duty Gate Lock to offer access control for secured perimeters and outdoor areas.
And we also introduced the KL1200 NetCodeÒ electronic locker lock to our KitLock range, to provide flexible, temporary access for heavy duty, high-use environments where additional robustness is required. This makes it great for self-service locations, storage facilities and lockers, for granting temporary access to event and school lockers.
Some Parting Words
So, that’s a wrap for 2024. It really was quite the year. What could possibly top that? Well, here comes 2025 and we’re developing a whole host of exciting new access control products that, quite frankly, we can’t wait to share with you.
Have a happy and restful holiday and, and we look forward to seeing you in the new year.